In the United States, the historical formulation of the “self-taught artist” is loaded with assumptions about class, race, and mental health that have obfuscated the figure of the maker. Because these artists practiced outside of conventional art school, gallery, museum, and peer-exchange systems, their works have oftentimes been interpreted through the lens of their discoverers and collectors.
Art Galleries & Museums
For more than six decades, Yoko Ono has challenged the conventions of art by inviting the audience into the work itself—either by being part of the art or stepping on it. A new exhibition at The Broad museum in Los Angeles traces the evolution of her practice from the early Fluxus experiments of the 1950s through her sweeping participatory installations of the 2000s.
Marilyn Monroe has never really faded away. One hundred years after her birth, and more than six decades after her death, she continues to hold a place in pop culture. Billie Eilish channeled her at the 2021 Met Gala. The novel and film Blonde reopened familiar debates over the model's life.
In the late hours of March 22, four thieves broke through the front door of the Magnani-Rocca Foundation, a private museum housed in a Neoclassical villa outside Parma in Italy.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Michael C. Rockefeller Wing was built over the course of the 1970s to showcase the world-class collections of art from sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, and the Ancient Americas assembled by Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller.
Improvisation, the ability to respond spontaneously to the moment, is a defining characteristic found in the work of two giants of modern art, Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Improv is also a necessary element in understanding and playing jazz, the freestyle musical genre born in the late 19th and early 20th century in African American communities in the southern United States.
At Bowery on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where the New Museum has stood since 2007, a 13-foot aluminum sculpture of two embracing figures now greets visitors before they step inside the recently renovated building.
Wherever you go in the United States of America, you aren't very far away from art. From intimate galleries to massive world-class collections, art museums worth visiting can be found across the country. In this special roundup, we are highlighting the best art museums in every state, plus the District of Columbia.
A current pocket exhibition at the Neue Galerie New York hearkens back to a time when the relationship between artist and patron was more direct, intimate, and collaborative than it is now that global capitalism has transformed art into an asset to enhance the ever-dizzying fortunes of billionaires. Today, art is merely a commodity, and by extension, artists are too.
The Louvre has weathered both revolutions and occupations over the centuries. Yet, the past few months have exposed a different kind of vulnerability in its leaking pipes, aging cameras, and institutional drift. The world’s most-visited museum is struggling to find steady footing in the wake of a series of mishaps and misdemeanors.
